Why Sample Answers are Law School Gold

Quick question: What do you do with the sample answers your professors hand out in law school?

If you’re a typical student, you probably answered in one of two ways:

Um, does anyone actually have time to read those things?
Yeah, I looked at a couple and noticed a few things I missed.

If you had either of these responses, you are missing out on a great opportunity to improve your exam taking skills!

Why?

Because these sample answers are absolute gold.

Using Sample Answers to Save Yourself Hours of Effort

Think about it for a second.

Your professor just handed you a TEMPLATE of a perfect exam answer.

What could be more valuable? She’s told you exactly what she wants to see in terms of analysis AND given you all the law you need to do the analysis.

You see where I’m going with this?

You can save yourself hours of effort by printing out every sample answer you can find (from your professor) and going through each one with a highlighter. One color for issue statements, one for legal rules, etc.

What do you end up with? A framework for your own answer on every topic covered in the exam! All you have to do is write out (or memorize) this framework and the corresponding rule statements, and you’re well on your way to a solid answer.

“But wait,” I hear you objecting, “my professor isn’t going to give this same question again.”

That’s right, the facts will be different on your test. But the reality is there’s a very limited universe of topics you can test on in each class, and the basic themes are going to come up over and over again.

Are you really going to have a 1L Torts exam that doesn’t cover negligence? I seriously doubt it.

But that’s also why you want to get every exam from your professor that you can find. You’ll see what shows up over and over again (obviously you need to know these areas cold), but you’ll also expand your list of the “20% topics” (things that show up rarely, but differentiate the As from the Bs).

Basically, your professor’s answer becomes your attack plan, in a way that’s 100% targeted to how they think about the law. And who’s always right in law school? Your professor.

Take that to heart, and give them what they want! Your GPA will thank you.

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